The
Wife of Bath is a chilling female monster. Her vicious opinions and venal
life story fill the males on the Canterbury pilgrimage with nervous fear
and revulsion. Her main traits are these:

*
She can cite scripture to support her vices for she is a skillful manipulator
of LOGOS (law, language, and logic).

*
She believes God made sex organs for "pleasure in engendering,"
but as her account unfolds, it appears to emphasize "pleasure"
far above "engendering." She is more VENUS LASCIVIA than VENUS
GENETRIX, more EROS than CARITAS, and it turns out she never had, nor
will have, children from her own body.

*
Yet she unashamedly boasts of the beauty and potency of her sex organs,
her "belle chose."

*
Her basic instinct is to POWER, "sovereignty," and "dominion"
over the opposite gender.

*
In her ungoverned lust, she recommends ADULTERY over MONOGAMY.

*
She recognizes Nature's bio-contract between males and females (sex for
provisioning), but strangely insists the "debt" of sexual pleasure
is owed to her.

*
Original sin in her basic MYTH (tale) is a male transgression (unlike
Eve's in Eden), its lead character being a rapist, but even he finds salvation
by adopting the story's final morality, that giving total DOMINION to
women saves the world.

*
Though this MYTH ends with everyone living happily ever after, her own
monstrous character remains unimproved. Making up morality MYTHS is easy,
their realization difficult, and their efficacy doubtful.

In
aggregate, of course, these traits turn out to be male, not female at
all, and Chaucer is speaking primarily to men. "How would you like
to face such a monster for a life partner?" he seems to say. "You
wouldn't? THEN DON'T BE ONE! For this is what women have faced from the
beginning of the human family."